The Production of Consonants

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The Production of Consonants

3. The Manner of Articulation

We have now looked at two of the three features that are used to give consonants their technical names: the state of the vocal folds and the place of articulation in the vocal tract. The last feature to understand is the manner of articulation. The manner of producing a sound refers to what happens to the air stream as it moves through the vocal tract. All consonants impede the movement of air through the vocal tract to some extent. Air can be restricted completely, somewhat, or very little, and the amount of impedence is described and included in the technical name of a consonant. In addition to describing the amount of impedence that is needed to produce each consonant, sometimes the actual route the air takes is used for the naming of consonants. We will begin with looking at the routes the air takes and then look at the extent to which air is impeded in the vocal tract.

There are essentially two routes air can follow through the vocal tract. It can travel through the mouth, or it can travel through the nose. Consonants produced when the air is sent through the mouth (the oral cavity) are called oral sounds, and sounds produced when the air is sent through the nose (the nasal cavity) are called nasal sounds. Since sending air through the mouth is the most common way to produce sounds, only sounds produced by sending air through the nose are named by that feature of sound production.